In this article I present a study on learners' conceptions in cosmology by situating the results in the context of broader historical and sociocultural themes. Participants were community college students in California from non-dominant cultural and linguistic backgrounds finishing their first semester of astronomy. Data were collected through a…

A random sample of 1,313 grades 7-9 Chinese language arts teachers in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taipei were surveyed about their instructional writing practices. When asked about their college, inservice, and personal preparation, three out of four teachers indicated that they were poorly prepared to teach writing. They were slightly…

Quality in early childhood education (ECE) is central to equitable child development and preparation for formal schooling and has been widely studied by researchers and of interest to policy makers. As the federal pre-k program, Head Start is a key ECE context to understand quality and its implications for equity. One central measure of classroom…

This study aims to identify the views of preschool teachers about learning within the framework of the cognitive and sociocultural constructivist approach and reveal the practical applications of constructivist learning in the 2006 Preschool Curriculum. Participants were ten preschool teachers working at three preschools in Bolu, Turkey and data…

Marta Civil's paper "STEM Learning Research through a Funds of Knowledge Lens" (see EJ1091567) can be read as a story about her trajectory as a researcher of everyday and school mathematics over time, grounded in sociocultural historical theory. Building on her work, I explore three issues. First, I address the grounding of STEM research…

This paper aims to engage with and respond to recent calls in the literature for a unifying theoretical framework to understand second language teacher education (SLTE). It critically reviews the major conceptualizations of SLTE in relation to the key conceptualizations of second language (L2) teaching. The review identifies shortcomings in…

Schön's concept of "reflection in action", particularly when interpreted from a sociocultural perspective, is often used as frame with which to consider the relationship between theoretical and tacit knowledge in the work of teachers. This paper presents an alternative interpretative frame for Schön which makes use of the ideas of…

Research in English involves understanding the complex process of professional learning, which begins in teacher education programs. In this special issue of "English in Australia," we draw on our experiences as researchers and teacher educators at the University of Sydney. We take a sociocultural and situated perspective in order to…

This study was designed to determine the extent to which poverty, gender stereotype, socio-cultural belief and lack of awareness influence low level of women participation in literacy programme in Maiha Local Government Area of Adamawa State. Survey designed was adopted for the study and a sample consisting of three hundred (300) women who were…

This article extends the ongoing debate about socially just pedagogy by arguing that disadvantaged learners' capacity to exercise learner agency, which is essential for learning but has been shown to be unequally constrained, can be more effectively enabled. This is accomplished by critically discussing the possibilities and limits of a selection…

Experience is one of the major paths to growth and autonomy, and as such, of outstanding educational value. But it also has a much wider sociocultural context, rooted in life itself. It is about learning that which cannot be taught, learning to think, which precedes all other-defined forms of education. It is an encounter with the unknown, where…

The following comments are intended as a constructive critique of the questions posed by Lima, Osterman and Rezende. The issues raised by the authors advocate for a return in research and teaching to the impetus of dialectical materialist approaches in the originators of the sociocultural school, including Vygotsky. The focus of this response is…

This book critiques dominant discourses and debates pertaining to values education, cultural identity and teaching democracy, set against the backdrop of growing social stratification and unequal access to quality education. It addresses discourses concerning globalisation, ideologies and the state, as well as approaches to values education and…

Health education in Aotearoa New Zealand is an enigma. Premised on ostensibly open and holistic philosophical premises, the school curriculum not only permits, but in some ways prescribes, pedagogies and teacher dispositions that engage with the diversity of young people at its centre. A capacity, to not only understand contemporary health…

The lives of Puerto Ricans in the neighborhood of Humboldt Park, Chicago, are often situated in a complex social field shaped by transnational cultural and political border crossing. We argue that artistic practices in this neighborhood are integral to building community and individual identities grounded in local meanings of the Puerto Rican…